I hope the next Zelda game uses toon-shading

**I don't mean the same exact style of Breath of the Wild.** BotW looked pretty different from Wind Waker. But they both use cel-shading and I think they are more successful for it.

I'm not going to shit on the OoT remake art style here. The environments look good. More importantly, I don't envy the task of translating N64 games to modern visual fidelity. I imagine they tried cel-shading graphics and decided against it. The style does look like it maintains something essential of the original game, which I reckon is important.

But man does it look plastic-y. And so do most games, which I hate. Grand Theft Auto 6 looks plastic-y to me, and because its style is ultra-realistic, the whole thing just gives me the creeps because of the [Uncanny Valley](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley) effect.

I see people on the internet are saying "OoT looks AI," which I don't think is true, but I think plasticy graphics (and CGI in movies) look "fake" in the same way that AI looks fake.

Cel-shading embraces the videogame medium, with its animations and interactivity often leading to absurdity, in a way that photorealism, or even fantastical-but-highly-detailed-style, doesn't. Nintendo explained why they went with this style for BotW in [this famous developer session](https://youtu.be/QyMsF31NdNc?si=4Mfo5ac9u75ikLgn&t=3717)—because it makes it "easy to lie"—it helps them balance gameplay fluidity and playability vs. in-game reality, like how swinging an axe on a tree trunk makes it poof into a bundle of wood instead of triggering some tedious canned animation or cutscene.

I would like to see a new style for the next game because BotW was styled specifically within the context of the Wii U technical specs and I'm interested to see what they do with more visual fidelity.

Edit: I feel like folks are underestimating the diversity of 2-D animated styles. which is really all "cel-shading" means. Compare, for example, Looney Tunes to Rick and Morty, or Berserk to Spirited Away, or even within just 2-D Disney movies, Sleeping Beauty to Aladdin. **"Cel-shading" is not itself an art style.**